Ten Stars or Less

run time: 101 mins
rated: 18A
considered: Comedy
starring: Edward Hogg, Simon Farnaby, Veronica Echegui, Noel Fielding

movie summary: A young shut-in takes an imaginary road trip inside his apartment, based on mementos and memories of a European trek from years before. (www.imdb.com)

my thoughts: Thanks to the Cinematic Katzenjammer for allowing me to enter “The CK’s Not So Secret Santa Review Swap” based on a recommendation from Dan the Man’s Movie Reviews. My movie to review was the British comedy Bunny and the Bull, which was outside of the box of what I usually watch and review. I never heard of this film and it took some time to actually find it online to watch, but thankfully I found it and here are my thoughts!

Stephen Turnbull (Edward Hogg) hasn’t left his apartment in over a year because of heartbreak and rejection when he was in love with a girl who put him in the friends zone. Living a single and lonely lifestyle he has become a pack rat with thousands of boxes all over his place filled with some of the most useless things you can imagine. He gets up and goes through the same exact routine every morning until one day a pack of mice have eaten through his food supply. He orders some take out from the same seafood restaurant of the famous disaster date and begins to think back to that fateful day.

We meet his best friend Bunny (Simon Farnaby) who was the mastermind behind this disastrous date. When the date doesn’t go according to plan, the pair end up gambling on race horses which wins them a few thousand pounds for their newly planned trip across Europe. They hit the road on a train and end up in Poland where they meet the beautiful yet vulgar waitress Eloisa (Veronica Echegui). Stephen immediately falls for her while Bunny ends up sleeping with her.

The trio win a car bet thanks to Bunny’s ability to eat a few pounds of crab. They stay at a hotel where they steal the life-like stuffed black bear from the lobby and mount it on top of the car. Thanks to heavy snow in Switzerland, they crash the car which leads Stephen and Bunny to meet a really messed up homeless guy who cares for a pack of dogs. After a few awkward moments and shared drinks, Bunny wins another bet by swimming in the icy cold river before Eloisa shows up with the car and picks them up. Back on the road Bunny gets hammered, like he always does, which allows for some one on one time for Stephen and Eloisa. After spending time at the carnival they share a romantic moment together where they realise they might be a good match for one another.

The next day they meet Eloisa’s brother Javier (Noel Fielding) who is a bull fighter. Bunny wants to learn how to fight bulls and decides to steal Javier’s special matador suit. After having a hurtful fight with each other, Bunny calls Stephen out to do whatever he wants to do for once in his life, so Stephen sleeps with Eloisa. In the middle of the night bunny shows up naked having lost all his clothes and the special matador suit to a gypsy. He convinces Stephen to take him to the train so he can return home before he gets in deep trouble with Javier. At the train station Bunny calls Eloisa to tell her that Stephen was behind everything, so she beats him up when he comes back, which ends the trip on a horrible note.

On the train back they don’t have much to say to each other except Bunny brags he would have taken on a bull if he had the time. After another brief argument about never really accomplishing anything in life they get off the train and go find a real bull so Bunny can challenge the massive animal. Satisfied with his accomplishment after a few taunts and misses by a bull, Bunny turns and starts to walk away when the bull charges. Stephen hops the fence and runs to grab his best friend but he is not quick enough.

Stephen wakes up in his messy apartment in tears. He feels guilty for the trip and that it was his fault for pushing his best friend to get killed. Bunny appears and tells Stephen that he needs to start living his life and go find Eloisa because he just wants him to be happy. The pair share a final good-bye while Stephen packs his bags and heads out the door on a new journey that will make Bunny proud.

I will be the first to admit when I looked up this movie I thought to myself that this was gonna be a horrible pain staking movie to sit through but I was surprised that I actually enjoyed it. The opening credits were creative while the first impressions of Stephen were priceless. The narrator makes you laugh out loud with the introduction into his lame boring life. There are several gut busting laughs when the pair hit the road and begin to experience some out of this world things. I have never been one for British theme comedy, but this was a funny buddy road trip movie that would be worth a watch some day for those fancy that style of film.

my star rating: 5 out 10